Listen to the following review with the above audio link

 

Greetings, ghoulies! I’m your host, Dustin J. Fallon, and welcome to another Horror And Sons film review. 

I started this site 12 years ago. In that time, I’ve watched more films than I can remember. I’ve also reviewed more films than I can remember. Really, I can’t remember most of them. So, on occasion, I like to revisit some of those previously reviewed films to see if my opinions have changed. That is, if I even remember my opinions. I guess it’s also to prevent you from having to dig around the site for a review that’s probably outdated and poorly written. 

Anyway, this is one of those occasions. This time, we’ll be revisiting the second film ever reviewed for the site, 1964’s I Eat Your Skin; a film that, despite being about zombies, is best remembered for its zero scenes of skin being eaten.

I Eat Your Skin was written, directed, and produced by Del Tenney. Tenney, who’s best remembered for the 1964 “Beach Blanket Monster Mash” film The Horror of Party Beach, also wrote and directed another 1964 horror film, The Curse of the Living Corpse, which was the film debut of Roy Scheider. I Eat Your Skin was also filmed in 1964 in my home state of Florida, in the cities of Miami Beach and Key Biscayne. Tenney shot the film under the title of “Carribean Adventure” so as to deceive investors who might not have been willing to put their money towards a horror film, especially one shot in black and white! Not when films like House of Wax (1953) and Hammer’s “double punch” of The Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula (1957 and 1960, respectively) had brought the monsters, blood, and sex to theater screens in full glorious color. Of course, George Romero would prove that there was still room for monochromatic terrors just a few years later.

Now, speaking of Romero and zombies… it’s crucial that viewers, especially first-time viewers, remember that I Eat Your Skin was filmed in 1964, some 4 years or so before the release of Night of the Living Dead. So, these are not the flesh-eating shamblers that millions have come to love over the decades. The zombies in I Eat Your Skin do indeed shamble their wobbly asses off, but these are the descendants of the zombies found in films of the 1930s and 40s, such as King of the Zombies, Revolt of the Zombies, and, of course, White Zombie. This means that they’re just normal people, brain-washed through chemical intervention or hypnotized into submission, but very much still alive. It also means that they were more than a little “outdated” by the mid-1960s.

As one might expect, I Eat Your Skin, by then retitled “Zombies”, failed to find distribution and was shelved. It’s reported that Tenney had originally hoped to have the film released as the second half of a twin-bill with another Florida-lensed genre film, Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster. As a fan of both films, I personally would have loved to witness this, even if it was a decade before my birth. The film was picked up some seven years later by distributor Jerry Gross, and retitled for its inclusion as the second-bill in the now legendary double-feature pairing with David Durston’s “rabid hippies” flick I Drink Your Blood. As anyone who has watched both films can attest, there are no similarities whatsoever between them. So, this has always seemed a fairly odd “twin-billing” as well.

One quick random note before I actually start discussing the film… While normally featured in the closing credits of most films, I Eat Your Skin acknowledges the cooperation of the multiple businesses that either helped support or were featured in the film in its opening credits. While most of these are businesses local to the Miami area, also thanked is one Mrs. Diana Reese, who contributed the two poodles featured in the film. Not sure why, but I found this worth mentioning.

I Eat Your Skin‘s lead character is novelist Tom Harris. Harris makes his name and living writing adventure tales full of “danger and daring”, not too dissimilar to the type found in old “pulp fiction” magazines such as “Man’s Adventure” or “Action for Men”. “Tom” is portrayed by actor William Joyce in his only lead role. However, Joyce had a fairly successful career as a “character actor”, appearing on television series such as “Bat Masterson“, “The Rockford Files“, and “Knight Rider“, as well as stints on soap operas “Days of Our Lives” and “Somerset“.

As the film opens, we find Tom lounging poolside at some swanky-looking resort that just screams 1960s’ decadence. In actuality, it’s Miami Beach’s Hotel Fontainebleau… an example of 1950’s decadence… which is still in operation today, but completely irrelevant to the plot. Tom passes the time regaling a bevy of bikini-clad beauties. Now, in my original review of the film, I commented on my distaste for women’s hairstyles of the 1960’s… or, at least, the hairstyles of these women. This earned me a response from a reader using the screen name of “Jag Mundhra”, who was dumbfounded… no, gobsmacked, I say.. by how I could be focused on hair when a bunch of half-naked women were proudly on display. Before anyone asks, no, this was not the Jag Mundhra, director of 1988’s Hack-O-Lantern,  as I believe he’d passed a few years prior to me even starting the site. I didn’t really have a response at the time and I’m not sure I do now. I guess my reply is that while titties are a wonderful thing… err, things… if you have a bird’s nest on your head, don’t expect me not to look.

Back to the film…

Tom is soon confronted by his publisher, Duncan, who first chides him for his slacker attitude and lack of focus on actually writing before offering him another assignment. Tom initially declines as he’s enjoying his bachelor lifestyle and, as it’s more than implied that Tom is sleeping with at least one of these women, he’s clearly not lacking in “action”. However, when one woman’s much older husband arrives to confront his cheating wife and her new lover, Tom hastily accepts Duncan’s offer and the two attempt to flee the scene. Naturally, they do make it out, but not until after the angry husband has pushed his adulterous wife into the resort’s pool and quite literally kicked the woman’s ass across the parking lot. Today, we’d probably call this “spousal abuse”, but in the 60s we called it “comedy”… I think.

Duncan informs Tom that they will be travelling by private plane to a small island in the Caribbean named Voodoo Island. Duncan’s wife, Coral, will be joining the men for the journey. Their “quest”, per Duncan, is to find an American scientist who has been experimenting with snake venom for use in cancer treatment. One can safely assume that it has not been going great. Either way, Duncan’s hope is that this trip will serve as inspiration for Tom’s next novel. Of course, as the place is called Voodoo Island, there’s allegedly plenty of voodoo magic afoot and possibly more than a few zombies walking around. Unsurprisingly, Tom balks at the plan. That is, until he’s informed that the island is also crawling with “eligible young women”, i.e, virgins. Spoiler: it’s not.

Did I mention that I Eat You Skin is an unrepentantly male-centric, sex-driven “adventure fantasy”… because it is. Like, totally. To paraphrase Limp Bizkit, as well as further tarnish my already shitty reputation, Tom undeniably does it all for the nookie.

Clearly, Tom is his own inspiration for his tales as there is seemingly little that the man can not do, even bringing the plane down himself for an emergency landing. As the actual pilot cheerfully relinquishes the controls at the first sign of distress, I do have to question why Tom didn’t just fly the damned thing himself? Again, I’m getting distracted.

Once safely back on land, Tom sets out on his own to search for help. Granted, Tom might be a “manly” man, but he’s also an American man. So, he’s packing heat. What he does find, however, is a young woman (actress and pin-up model Heather Hewitt) swimming alone in a canal. As opposed to the women back at the Fontainebleau, I don’t find myself quite as concerned with Miss Hewitt’s hair… although it is nice. Being the natural horndog that he is, Tom can’t help but watch her for a few moments. Also watching her is one of the aforementioned zombies.

Zombie make-up, and I use that term quite loosely here, mostly consists of the actors’ face being covered in a thick layer of… I don’t know what. Plaster? Mashed potatoes? You tell me. Either way, this make-up is heavily layered around the eyes, as if to give the appearance of bulging. Granted, this probably limited vision for these actors, which surely presented difficulties with walking through the jungle-like setting… and it really was jungle-like as many areas of South Florida were still undeveloped by the mid-60s.

Although both Tom and the young woman escape the zombie’s grasp, an old fisherman pops up long enough to be decapitated by the ghoul. Although maybe not overly convincing, the effect is shown full-frame, albeit briefly. While the woman vanishes, Tom is soon rescued by a man named Bentley, a wealthy American who has settled on the island. Bentley escorts Tom and his friends to his estate, where he hosts the reclusive scientist and the man’s research.

At Bentley’s home, Tom is reunited with the woman from the canal; Jeannie, who also happens to be the scientist’s daughter. He wastes no time in putting his “best moves” on the woman. Jeannie rolls her eyes at this shameless peacocking, as she rightfully should, but still finds the man charming all the same. After dinner, most of which is spent listening to Bentley ensuring his guests that the island is completely safe (spoiler: it’s not), Tom offers to take Jeannie for a moonlit stroll. Meanwhile, our friendly neighborhood zombie awaits just outside the home and has brought along a few friends of his own.

Although both Tom and Jeannie escape harm again, Bentley is forced to admit what we already know; there’s some voodoo bullshit goin’ down on Voodoo Island! Bentley informs Tom that not only do the island’s native people still believe in and actively participate in these various rituals and ceremonies, but also hold the belief that the best remedy to their troubles is the sacrifice of blonde-haired white bitches. Preferably, virgin ones. At the moment, those “troubles” would seem to be all these god-damned zombies. Making matters worse is a High Priest, one who hides their face behind a disguise, who riles up the superstitious natives while also secretly controlling the zombies.

As for the “native people” of this small, undeveloped Caribbean island… For whatever reason, colorized versions of I Eat Your Skin exist. In fact, there’s one currently available to watch on Tubi. While the colorization technique is as poorly achieved as one might expect (possibly worse), the only possible “revelation” here is in just how many white people are part of this native population. They’re easy to spot too! Just look for the people not dancing during the ceremonies. Although I have watched I Eat Your Skin many times over the years, I guess I’d never paid too much attention to such things. However, after having experienced the film this way, Voodoo Island feels less like some foreign nation and more like a Beaches Resort by Sandals.

The final act sees Tom attempting to get his friends and new “Saturday Night thing” off the island, but not before Jeannie and Coral are abducted and the superfluous pilot killed. It’s intended for Jeannie to also be killed, a sacrifice by the High Priest to appease the angry gods. He got the “white” and “blonde” part correct, but not so much the third component. Tom took care of that. Predictably, the villain is stopped mere moments before… well, before Jeannie can disappoint the gods. In what would later become commonplace on “Scooby-Doo“, the culprit is unmasked, the revelation being anything but a surprise as the character was a sketchy bastard the entire film.

As our surviving characters make their final flight to freedom, an explosion destroys the doctor’s lab, and most of Voodoo Island with it. The effect appears to be created by exploding a paper mache model of the island… well, an island… while it floats in a pool. It’s really one of the most unrealistic practical effects you’ve ever seen, and it’s friggin’ glorious. Granted, logic implies that more than a few innocent people were killed in the blast and the island’s consequent disintegration. So, while there’s solid argument that someone is probably going to Hell for all the deaths and devastation, at least no one goes to jail and our characters live the rest of their lives happily ever after or some shit.

I’d be a damned liar if I tried to convince you that I Eat You Skin is a “great” film. It’s not. The film has more than its share of flaws, such as the clumsy make-up, multiple plot holes, and a mentality that is sure to feel out-dated to many modern viewers. That said, as with many other films of questionable merit, there’s still a certain charm to this lack of polish, and the antiquated viewpoints (especially the attitude towards its women characters) can easily be seen as comedic absurdity… as it rightfully should. I don’t think anyone took this shit too seriously in 1964 or 1971, so there’s really little point in doing so now.

On the intentionally comedic side of the things, the characters of Duncan and Coral do help keep to proceedings from ever getting too “dark” or taking on too serious a tone. Duncan is fairly uptight, while Coral is much more free-spirited… and has a bit of a gambling habit. As such, she tends to drive the man crazy, and their somewhat Honeymooners-esque relationship helps provide a little levity… not that the film exactly needs it.

Again, I Eat Your Skin is not a “great” film. Not by any means. That said, I do find it entertaining enough to throw on every so often, even if I’m not exactly paying full attention. There really aren’t many aspects of the film that couldn’t be classified as “macho bullshit”. However, whether intentional or not, Tenney handles these aspects in such a way as to be a farce; like we should be rolling our eyes right along with Jeannie. Watching the film, it’s kinda hard not too. Truth be told, I just wish that I Drink Your Blood, the film it was famously paired with, had more of the same mentality. Yup, that was a parting shot. Suck it, hippies!

I Eat Your Skin is in the public domain, so it should be available to watch damned near anywhere, and possibly colorized… for whatever reason.

As no “real” trailer exist for I Eat Your Skin, I’ll just share a link to the full film. Film Masters has a fairly solid quality scan of the film available on YouTube. Let’s just go with that one.